Infinity and Perspective

Infinity and Perspective is a profound, lucid meditation on the Renaissance-theological roots of modernity and on philosophy's endless odyssey. The book moves gracefully from Alberti and the Cusan through the rise of science and Kant to the threshold of the third Copernican revolution, finally landing us back home on earth. This is a remarkable, Socratic, and Vichian book.

Giuseppe Mazzotta, Author of The New Map of the World: The Poetic Philosophy of Giambattista V. Vico and Cosmopoiesis: The Renaissance Experiment

Drawing on his vast knowledge of German philosophy and theology, art history, architectural theory, and the history of modern science, Harries presents a radical and challenging account of modernity and its discontents. Infinity and Perspective is a profound, erudite, extraordinarily insightful, challenging, yet beautifully written, inquiry into the modern condition, which will be read with profit both by professional philosophers, art historians and by all of us seeking to understand how we got to where we are. A real masterpiece.

Dermot Moran, Department of Philosophy, University College Dublin, Editor of the International Journal of Philosophical Studies and author of several studies on medieval mysticism and contemporary phenomenology

This beautiful book by Karsten Harries is crucial reading for all architects and philosophers suspicious of cynical attitudes and interested in construing and building a truly poetic home for mankind. Harries weaves a story of hope and possibility for our time out of a careful study of early modern thinkers from Cusanus to Galileo. He discloses previously hidden possibilities for modernity, establishing a critical position upon the important work of well-known philosophers of science such as Hans Blumenberg and Alexander Koyré. Engaging the crucial problem of perspective vision and its epistemological roots, this book is a true 'philosophy of architecture'—a most appropriate 'mode of philosophizing' capable of addressing the crucial questions for humanity in the wake of modernity.

Alberto Pérez-Goméz, Saidye Rosner Bronfman Professor of the History of Architecture, McGill University

Harries's well-positioned and clearly presented history of ideas will generate a great deal of controversy...

Publishers Weekly